Marketing director: 'How do I shut down Twitter?'

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A hijacker claiming to be an axed HMV worker took over the music retailer's official Twitter stream yesterday to tell the world of a "mass execution" taking place at HQ.

A fortnight ago HMV (His Master's Voice) called in the administrators when bosses realised they were likely to miss banking covenants at the end of January.

Deloitte was brought on board to seek a way forward for the ailing biz but confirmed yesterday it was slashing 190 jobs from HMV's head office and the distribution network.

But amusingly a running commentary on developments at corp HQ was provided, purportedly by staffers who had seized control of HMV's official Twitter feed.

"There are over 60 of us being fired at once! Mass execution, of loyal employees who love the brand. #hmvXFactorFiring," the tweeter said.

"We're tweeting live from HR where we're all being fired," they added.

There was then a brief respite, presumably as the powers tried to silence those pesky sacked peeps, but a little over 10 minutes later the tweets began again.

The hijacker claimed HMV's Twitter account had been set up by an intern "unpaid, technically illegal" a couple of years back. The tweeter then said that he or she had taken control of the Twitter stream to protest at "the company you dearly love being ruined".

Clearly the battle for the keyboard began again, but before the silence, the tweeter said "Just heard our marketing director (he's staying, folks) ask 'How do I shut down Twitter". ®